Why Jon Rahm Finds it 'Tricky' to Assess His 2025 Season

The two-time major champion controversially won LIV's season-long individual title and hopes for more this week at the BMW PGA Championship.
Despite strong results, Jon Rahm is looking for his first win of 2025.
Despite strong results, Jon Rahm is looking for his first win of 2025. / Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

At the BMW PGA Championship, Jon Rahm is looking to accomplish something he hasn’t yet pulled off in 2025:

Win a tournament. 

But even though the 30-year-old Spaniard didn’t hoist a trophy this year, he still collected LIV Golf’s season-long individual title, with his lowest finish all year a T11 in Dallas. Plus, he had two top 10s in majors, with his worst a T34 at the British Open. 

Being winless in September is unchartered territory for Rahm. He has won a professional tournament in every year since 2017.

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So how would he characterize his season?

“It’s tricky,” the two-time major champion said Tuesday at Wentworth. “I played really good. I played really good golf. Finished second, I think four times. Came just shy of two playoffs, which is no guarantee I'm going to win, but would like to have a better look at birdie in the playoff.

“Any time you don’t win, it feels disappointing but my average has been fifth.”

Rahm winning the individual LIV title was controversial. Despite being winless, he edged out Joaquin Niemann, who won five times on LIV this year. 

Rahm won’t be giving back the $18 million bonus that he earned by raking up strong results, but the competitor in him would like a victory under his belt. 

“Like [my year has] been good in majors,” he said. “There’s a lot of things, a lot of good things that happened this year for me to consider the year successful. I just wasn’t able to come over the line some of those weeks. I think it's the nature of the game.”

All hope isn’t lost, though. He can emerge victorious this week at Wentworth against all of his European Ryder Cup teammates. Then, he hopes to be part of a victorious Ryder Cup squad at Bethpage Black in two weeks. 

“I certainly think I did some things right [in 2025],” Rahm said, “and luckily the year is not over and hopefully I can end up with a win hopefully this week.”


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Max Schreiber
MAX SCHREIBER

Max Schreiber is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, covering golf. Before joining SI in October 2024, the Mahwah, N.J., native, worked as an associate editor for the Golf Channel and wrote for RyderCup.com and FanSided. He is a multiplatform producer for Newsday and has a bachelor's in communications and journalism from Quinnipiac University. In his free time, you can find him doing anything regarding the Yankees, Giants, Knicks and Islanders.